What Michael Scheuer (see Wikipedia) has to say about the Iraq war and Islamic terrorism is correct. But what he has to say has to be ignored or viciously attacked because it leads one to focus on (and then perhaps question) US foreign policy and on what the US does around the world (largely, if not entirely) for corporate interests. That sort of inquiry can't be allowed, and so it has to be kept out of the American mind -- for sure. So instead of Scheuer's views, Americans hear other things: for instance, they hear that there cannot be any reason for terrorism, other than the idea that terrorists simply hate America, that they are ruthless killers, and that they hate American freedom and democracy. One can hear the same very misleading ideas after the London bombings. But the truer story is that bin Laden and others hate specific US policies. That's one reason why it is important to read bin Laden's "Letter to America," which sets out a list of grievances that can be connected to specific US policies.
A QUOTE from Scheuer:
I think the most basic thing for Americans to realize is that this war has nothing to do with who we are or what we believe, and everything to do with what we do in the Islamic world. Mr. Bush, Mr. Clinton, Mr. Bush before Mr. Clinton -- they all identified Islamic militancy as being based on the hatred of Western democracy and freedom, and that’s clearly not the case. They surely don’t like our way of life, but very few people are willing to die to keep us from having primary elections or because we have freedom of the press.
Universally in the Muslim world, at least according to the most recent polling data, American foreign policy in several specific areas is hated by Muslims. Majorities of 85-90 percent are registered as hating or resenting American policies, towards our support for Israel, our ability to keep oil prices low, or low enough to satisfy Western consumers, our support for Arab tyrannies from Morocco to the Indian Ocean, our support for Putin in Chechnya.
--Michael Scheuer
